The production of a Woodland Opportunities Map was a key output in the Regional Forestry Framework.  It aims to:

• Assist landowners in making decisions about how their proposals fit into the wider regional aspirations of the Regional Forestry Framework. 
• Help focus activity on areas of maximum public benefit in creating and managing woodlands in the region.
• Assist the Forestry Commission and other funding bodies regionally in making decisions about proposals to create and manage woodlands (via regional scoring).

The map covers four themes: landscape, biodiversity, heritage and public access.  The current biodiversity theme map for Shropshire is blank as there was not enough habitat information available.  Shropshire County Council has been asked by FC to produce a map for the second version due in Spring 2007.

A novel approach has been adopted for the development of this map.  The landscape of Shropshire has been categorised into Landscape Description Units (LDUs) on the basis of its physical and cultural characteristics (see www.shropshire.gov.uk for more detail).  These LDUs have been scored according to the number of plant indicator species they contain (where a plant indicator is one that is indicative of good quality habitat). 

Those LDUs with high scores for species indicative of ancient woodland are likely to be a good place to plant additional woodland and are labelled as ‘Preferred’ for planting.  This way existing ancient woodland could be extended and links between woodland blocks could be made.  Those LDUs scoring highly for species indicative of open habitats are likely to be sensitive to woodland planting and are labelled as such.  LDUs that don’t score highly for any indicator species are labelled ‘neutral’ for woodland planting.  

A difficulty arises in biodiversity rich areas where LDUs score highly for both woodland and for open habitat indicator species.  We have called these areas ‘complex’ as woodland planting could potentially be of great benefit to existing woodland species in the area, however, very careful biodiversity checks at the site level would be necessary to prevent damage to good quality, non-woodland habitats.  The matrix below summarises the categorisation mechanism for LDUs.

Preferred: High score for woodland indicators Low score for open habitat indicators	Complex: High score for woodland indicators High score for open habitat indicators
Neutral: Low score for woodland indicators Low score for open habitat indicators	Sensitive: Low score for woodland indicators High score for open habitat indicators

 For further information on the production of the map please click HERE.